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Friday, September 23, 2011

Small businesses contracting being eliminated by President Obama

Obama Administration to
Axe Minority-Owned Small Business Programs
By The American Small Business League

PETALUMA, CA – Last week, the Obama Administration set a rule change
in motion to eliminate federal contracting programs for minority-owned small
businesses. A shocking move since, in the midst of one of the worst recessions
in U.S. history, unemployment has hit minority groups especially hard.
According the U.S. labor
department, the jobless figure for African Americans is almost twice
that of overall unemployment (16.7 percent).

The proposed rule change
is aimed at ending federal programs that establish, for the Department of
Defense (DOD), NASA and the U.S. Coast Guard, a five percent federal
contracting goal with small socially and economically disadvantaged businesses.

Around 35 percent of
the U.S. population is made up of ethnic minorities, and 5.8 million
businesses are minority-owned. The American Small Business League (ASBL)
estimates that if the policy is implemented, minority-owned small businesses
could lose close to $50 billion in federal contracts annually, which could lead
to the loss of millions of jobs.

This is the latest in
several instances of abuse of federal small business contracting programs. In
addition to attempts to eliminate minority-owned federal contracting programs,
the Obama Administration has been criticized for diverting billions of dollars
a month in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and other
large businesses worldwide. Some large
companies that have received federal small business contracts
include Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and Italian defense
giant Finmeccanica SpA.

In Report 5-15, the Small
Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA IG) described this
abuse as, “One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business
Administration and the entire federal government today.” The SBA IG has named
the issue as a top management challenge for six consecutive years.

“It is unbelievable that
at a time when unemployment among minorities is at record levels, the President
is going to eliminate the largest federal programs to help minority-owned
businesses,” said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman. “It will no doubt destroy
millions of jobs and minority businesses from coast to coast.”